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Help anyone else seeing the signal bars completely disappear?

I lost connection again today. I made it through yesterday without dropping once (as far as i noticed).

This is really frustrating!!
 
Until I saw this thread I thought the bars greying out may have been the phone not waking up right. I have toggled back and forth between G's and that helps somewhat. Have to keep an eye on it as its happening more. Stock phone here.
Billd
 
finn5975 said:
Happens to me nearly often unfortunately. I'll pick up my phone to use it, and there will be no 3G (Im not in a 4G area) and when I go to connect to say, facebook, it will tell me there is no internet connection. After a minute or to it will return. Often times I will see zero bars for signal but it hasnt yet seemed to translate to dropped calls.
Click to expand...

Exactly my problem and no I don't think is the network my wife's RAZR keeps the signal and data very good without this weird behaivor
 
Verizon sent me a new SIM Card. It fixed the issue of dropping the network. Apparently, there was a bad batch of SIM Cards and I got one. Call Verizon and they will send you a new SIM Card.
 
Is the sim card issue a legit issue or just an assumption made by a few? I'm wanting to give my wife my Thunderbolt to replace her DInc and jump into a GNEX. However, with the BS I had to put up with 5 months worth of BS at that with the TBolt issues I want to go with the GNEX but I can't go thru some call dropping and data dropping drama once again.

Thanks for any input.

MJ
 
mj8 said:
Is the sim card issue a legit issue or just an assumption made by a few? I'm wanting to give my wife my Thunderbolt to replace her DInc and jump into a GNEX. However, with the BS I had to put up with 5 months worth of BS at that with the TBolt issues I want to go with the GNEX but I can't go thru some call dropping and data dropping drama once again.

Thanks for any input.

MJ
Click to expand...

I would love to know the answer to this as well. I asked two verizon stores today (one told me they had the extended battery, drove there only to be told the girl held a samsung extended battery for some other samsung phone lol :rolleyes:) and the other where I bought the extended battery. I asked if it was a SIM card issue. Both denied it had anything to do with the SIM.

Anyway, I had this problem BADLY when I drove to the 1st store with the Nexus. It probably happened like 6 times or more in 25 minutes. :eek:

I found that the Nexus they gave me had physical trauma/damage and swapped it at Costco (they were super nice about it) because of that and figured the network drops were because of the damage. Nope, the one they swapped out for me is having the exact same problem, unfortunately. :(

A few observations:

- this happened for me while driving but ALSO when I was just walking to my car, so initially I thought it might be when it tower hops, but I don't think so
- When this happens, often I have four full bars of 4G. I'll try to browse or go to the market, etc and I'll get the "no connection" error. But it doesn't seem to be signal level related or I would expect it to happen only when I had like 1 bar. Then again, if the bars don't update that often, I suppose it's possible I'm dropping from 4 bars to 0 really fast for some reason.
- Shortly after that, the 4G symbol and bars disappear and I am left with a solid gray triangle. No data connection works while this triangle is there
- About 30 seconds to a minute later, I'll get the gray bars, then shortly thereafter 4G and then blue 4G+bars.
- Every time this has happened I have been in a seemingly good 4G area. It never even tries to go to 3G. It just goes 4G -> drop/nada -> 4G. But it does do it frequently.

I set my phone to CDMA only on the drive home and I don't think it dropped once. I think it's an LTE-related thing, which would support the sim card idea, but could be other things of course, too.

I am going to try to get a logcat (adb logcat) when it happens to see what (if any) messages are in the logs when this happens. I can post my (sanitized) logcat here if anyone has technical experience with android logs and interworkings. I am going to try asking in #cyanogenmod as well, there are some really knowledgeable devs in there.

Should I try calling 611 to ask them for a SIM card? If so, could I have them note in my account to let me try that and then when I go to the store I won't get the "it's not the simcard" reply? If it truly is the SIM card, I'm wondering how I can get mine swapped.
 
BTW, is this happening on the GSM version as well or just the LTE one? If just the LTE, I have asked the mods to move to the VZW sub-forum since it is VZW specific/related. :) But if anyone did see this on GSM, strike that.
 
I picked up Nexus Saturday. So excited to have a phone with new OS and all Google, not a bunch of bloat apps imbedded.
Got the phone home and saw 1 bar to no bars. We are a home of Droids, so I asked hubby and kids how many they had. All had 3 or 4 bars on Samsung Charge, Droid X and 2 Droidx2 phones.
Then I looked at there phone signal dBm. Nexus was bouncing -100 to -128 where as the others hard -86 to -96.
Granted only one of these phones are 4G but all registered the same.
I do know when I returned the phone and picked up a charge, the Rep changed setting to 3G, which they had not done for Nexus. He did this because in the store the charge was not getting a signal. I am in an are where 4G is spotty, so I thought that might have been the problem.
Lastly, I did read, Nexus has the antenna on the bottom. Article was on a T-Mobile phone. Holding the phone lowers signal, place 2 hands on the device and signal will drop. I tried this and it worked. No bars after about 10 seconds. The design is much like iPhone 4 that had signal issues. It could be a HW design issue verses Verizon network, or Google OS.
Charge works ok, but had tons of bloat and a few quirks I don't like and would really like a Nexus.....but reading this.....more confused as ever.
 
flaxie said:
I picked up Nexus Saturday. So excited to have a phone with new OS and all Google, not a bunch of bloat apps imbedded.
Got the phone home and saw 1 bar to no bars. We are a home of Droids, so I asked hubby and kids how many they had. All had 3 or 4 bars on Samsung Charge, Droid X and 2 Droidx2 phones.
Then I looked at there phone signal dBm. Nexus was bouncing -100 to -128 where as the others hard -86 to -96.
Granted only one of these phones are 4G but all registered the same.
I do know when I returned the phone and picked up a charge, the Rep changed setting to 3G, which they had not done for Nexus. He did this because in the store the charge was not getting a signal. I am in an are where 4G is spotty, so I thought that might have been the problem.
Lastly, I did read, Nexus has the antenna on the bottom. Article was on a T-Mobile phone. Holding the phone lowers signal, place 2 hands on the device and signal will drop. I tried this and it worked. No bars after about 10 seconds. The design is much like iPhone 4 that had signal issues. It could be a HW design issue verses Verizon network, or Google OS.
Charge works ok, but had tons of bloat and a few quirks I don't like and would really like a Nexus.....but reading this.....more confused as ever.
Click to expand...

Note that you cannot compare dBm between the nexus and another 4G phone on gingerbread because in the about phone info, GB shows the 3G signal dBm, even if you're connected to LTE.

There is an app, though, called Sensorly that can show you the CDMA and LTE signal strengths. It appeared to work properly on the Rezound, so I imagine it would also work on the Charge. So give that a shot to compare signal levels.
 
i wanted this phone for 3 months and lived in these forums....only to be hightly disapointed. the phone itself was awesome but always lost my connection which played horrible with the battery as well. i tried 3 sim cards with no help. I am picking up my iphone 4s today. i will keep this until the iphone 5 releases which i can buy with my wifes upgrade and give her the 4s. I never thought i would leave android but just no phones i wanted on verizon at this point.:o
 
Cool app thank you. App read same dBm as phone on my charge. When I compared signals, to nexus, my daughter has a charge, so had good signal nexus did not. After 2 phones same signal readings, I returned and got a charge.
Not crazy about the charge because of a few things I find in Ui not friendly.
Was going to go back to get Nexus tomorrow which is deadline....but this thread makes me think I should ride out the charge :(
At one location I live 4G is spotty....so I was not expecting 4G service. The other location does have 4G but cell is the only phone I have there. Much risk by the sounds of feedback.
 
flaxie said:
Cool app thank you. App read same dBm as phone on my charge. When I compared signals, to nexus, my daughter has a charge, so had good signal nexus did not. After 2 phones same signal readings, I returned and got a charge.
Not crazy about the charge because of a few things I find in Ui not friendly.
Was going to go back to get Nexus tomorrow which is deadline....but this thread makes me think I should ride out the charge :(
At one location I live 4G is spotty....so I was not expecting 4G service. The other location does have 4G but cell is the only phone I have there. Much risk by the sounds of feedback.
Click to expand...

If the Charge and the Nexus showed the same LTE signal / dBm, I think there is a very good chance a radio or OS update will fix the issue. At least I would think so if the radios are both picking up the signal with the same strength, though I guess we can't really compare the SNR (signal to noise ratio).

For anyone who wants to read through my logcat, I've attached it. Unfortunately, I didn't run it with -v time, so the timestamps aren't there. But I'm planning to keep an eye on the phone when I out and about at lunch and will screen shot the "solid gray triangle of death" if it happens to me, so I have the time and can compare to a new logcat :)
 

Attachments

No nexus had much weaker signal than charge. Nexus was getting -100 to -128.
Charge was getting -86 to -95 from comparison over a 15 hours run. Same house or yard. Sunny or when cloudy. When charge negative went hire some did nexus....just nexus numbers are not decent signal strength.
 
flaxie said:
No nexus had much weaker signal than charge. Nexus was getting -100 to -128.
Charge was getting -86 to -95 from comparison over a 15 hours run. Same house or yard. Sunny or when cloudy. When charge negative went hire some did nexus....just nexus numbers are not decent signal strength.
Click to expand...

What are you using to see/collect these numbers? If you are just looking in "about phone", you are comparing 3G signal on the Charge with 4G signal on the Nexus.
 
flaxie said:
No nexus had much weaker signal than charge. Nexus was getting -100 to -128.
Charge was getting -86 to -95 from comparison over a 15 hours run. Same house or yard. Sunny or when cloudy. When charge negative went hire some did nexus....just nexus numbers are not decent signal strength.
Click to expand...

Could you clarify how you checked those numbers? Just in setting/about or using app like Sensorly? I like to see how 3G, 4G signals compare between two.
 
I'm in the UK and have a similar issue on 3G. If it's the same thing then it isn't necessarily related to the 4G radio. However, I find that the only thing that will fix it is a reboot: switching on Airplane mode will make the aeroplane symbol appear in the notification bar, but long pressing the power button again to turn Airplane mode off says Airplane Mode is ON in the list, but it's greyed out so you can't click on it to turn it off and activate the radio. Only a reboot makes Airplane Mode non greyed out so that it can be deactivated. (Airplane mode cycles on/off normally when the signal issue isn't present.) Has anyone else had this Airplane mode issue, or could this be a seperate 3G radio issue?

Incidentally, I just got 4.0.2 update today, and the same thing just happened as before when I was on 4.0.1...
 
My data comes back pretty quickly. I haven't had to fool around with airplane mode, it just drops for 30-60 seconds then comes back.

The logcat data was bogus because I think they had rotated. I'm going to have to capture it again when it happens. I'll post it once I have it.
 
Where I am I do not get 4G. My charge has 4G LTE as well. Os set for that. Even in sensorly, no 4G service. Same compare.
Numbers on Charge much higher -93 than is was getting on Nexus -100+.

Believe me, if I thought I could have Nexus and receive decent service, I'd be all over it. But having a cell phone I can't call on and I get data can't be displayed when looking for google.com, defeats the purpose. I work remotely, was hoping the problem I had with 2 Nexus, was uncommon.
 
Can someone please explain to me what the bars actually mean. When I first turn on the radio my edge connection is solid gray for a second, next 5 gray bars, then some number of blue bars.

So whats:

Solid gray?
Gray bars?
Blue bars?

It seems odd to me that i always have a full 5 gray bars and less blue?

Should mention I have TMO GSM GN 4.0.1
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one with this crucial problem. I'm thinking of returning this phone. It gets horrible signal and drops my calls in so many places. Problem is once it drops the call I have NO SIGNAL at all, and have to reboot. This is my daily life now. 2-3 times a day I check my phone to find that it has NO signal at all with around 30% of battery drained (looking for signal constantly). In order to regain signal I need a full reboot, 3-4 minutes of my life I'll never get back. All is fine until a few hours later when I discover it has no signal again.

So far I have missed calls from a few friends and relatives, but imagine in an Emergency situation where no one can reach you when you flagship device decides to have no signal. To make matters worse your battery is drained by the time you discover it imagine you have no charger around but have to make an important call that lasts for say 10-15 min.

Its just too buggy for all the hype that went into it. I got this thing on day 1. I might just jump ship to Razr or just return it and go back to my droid X until iPhone 5 comes out. I brag about my nexus all the time but it was damn embarrassing when we had to get directions and my gf's old 3GS pulled up the info right away when my phone didn't even have signal. All this fancy stuff is pointless if it just doesn't work right. And iphones, even though I talk trash about them, Just Works.

Ending rant now.
 
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